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addiemon
Posts: 93 |
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The element that I took issue with from an argument standpoint is that you said that "(i)t is a scientifically proven fact men and women have different development cycles for their brains to the point it influences their education and careers." As far as I have been able to find, what is proven is that men and women have physiologically different brains. It's apparent that this has an impact on our development, but precisely what impact it has-- and how it interacts with the impacts of social/cultural indoctrination --is still actively debated. This is, ultimately, an extrapolation of the 100+ year old "nature vs. nurture" debate. Given the evidence available at this time, I think correlating these physiological brain differences to differing interests and aptitudes is a pretty big leap. We know there are physiological brain differences (A), and we know that men and women may present with different interests along gender lines (B). However, we ALSO know that our society and culture have encouraged, even required, a gender split in interests and careers for centuries (C). So we cannot logically conclude that "A, therefore B"-- that physiological differences are the only, main, or even a prominent factor. We just do not know. Personally, I am of the belief (as in, since we lack evidence, I have come to the following opinion, but I do not have facts to prove it, and inconclusive evidence can be provided for or against it) that cultural gender expectations play such a larger role in the gender gap between interests than physiological differences between the sexes does as to render the latter almost without value. Now, I think there are other elements of "nature" (native intelligence, physical ability, etc.), and when you add all those up as the sum total of "nature," I believe they total up to a significant chunk of how we become who we are. But I believe that "nurture" as a whole plays a drastically larger role in this than the one specific physical/"nature" trait of sex. You are welcome to believe differently, of course, but neither my belief nor the opposite is a "scientifically proven fact," at least as far as any contemporary research that I can find indicates. Again, I would be very interested to read anything that provides further insight on the matter-- even if it's a non-scholarly article that cites a study, I may be able to locate the study through my library access. Another great resource for finding academic works-- at least finding their names, and sometimes full text versions are available --is Google Scholar, an academic-only search engine. The results have to be examined a little closer than a traditional academic database's, but on the plus side, it's much easier to search than a lot of those databases, and free. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in really diving deep on topics like this. 
(ETA: Thanks for your patience as I make a couple of tweaks for clarity and one correction.  )
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